A Tesla car arrives at a service center in Los Angeles, California on March 4, 2019.Mark Ralston / Getty via AP Older Tesla models will be most likely retrofitted near the end of this year with a chip powerful enough to allow for full self-driving, according to a tweet-reply from the companys CEO.Teslas full self-driving FSD chip the first its designed in-house has been installed in Model S, X and 3 cars since about March 2019, chief executive Elon Musk said.He plans now to offer it as a free upgrade to owners of 2017-and-newer Tesla models who opted for the US$6,000 Full Self-Driving package upon purchase, reports The Verge. Thats about half-a-million cars.End of Q4, most likely Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 8, 2019Musk boasts that this new FSD chip offers 21 times the processing power of the Nvidia chips installed in Teslas prior to 2019, though that company says the claim is bogus, say The Verge.The hardware upgrade which includes two of the chips for redundancy will be powerful enough to allow for complete self-driving capability, if Musk is to be believed, though of course the software that allows for that sort of autonomy is still under development.For now, the Full Self-Driving package ordered by so many Tesla customers equipped their car solely with a Navigate on Autopilot feature, which the automaker says lets the car handle on-ramp to off-ramp highway driving, including self-directed lane changes and interchange navigation.The name of the package has come under criticism for apparently advertising more than it could
Origin: Older Teslas could get self-driving-capable chip this year: Elon Musk
Tesla’s
News Roundup: Double dose of FCA controversy, banged up Bugatti, and Teslas fires that just won’t go out
Flags are lowered at half staff at the FCA headquarters in Turin, Italy, Wednesday, July, 25, 2018. Sergio Marchionne, a charismatic and demanding CEO who engineered two long-shot corporate turnarounds to save both Fiat and Chrysler from near-certain failure, died Wednesday. He was 66. The holding company of Italian automaker Fiats founders, the Agnelli family, announced Marchionne had died after complications from surgery in Zurich. At Fiat Chrysler Automobiles headquarters in the Italian town of Turin, flags flew at half-mast, while in Rome the parliamentary committee for labor and finance observed a minute of silence.Alessandro Di Marco / The Associated press Welcome to our weekly round-up of the biggest breaking stories on Driving.ca from this past week. Get caught up and ready to get on with the weekend, because it’s hard keeping pace in a digital traffic jam. Here’s what you missed while you were away. Fiat Chrysler pulls out of merger proposal with Renault After being unable to agree on terms of the deal, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has withdrawn its proposal for a 50/50 merger with Renault. The agreement could have formed the world’s third-largest automaker after VW and Toyota, but according to FCA, the French State, which owns 15 per cent of Renault, was showing signs of hesitation (likely stemming from Nissan’s hesitation), prompting FCA to release a statement saying, “It has become clear that the political conditions in France do not currently exist for such a combination to proceed successfully.” Honda CR-V damages Tracy Morgan’s $2-million Bugatti minutes after it’s delivered Tracy Morgan’s Bugatti Veyron in a fender-bender with a Honda CR-V Twitter @J_MOSK Talk about comedic timing. Mere moments after comedian and former SNL cast member Tracy Morgan got behind the wheel of his new (though technically used) Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport convertible, the $2-million vehicle was struck and scraped at an intersection by a Honda CR-V. The driver of the CR-V was allegedly on her phone while trying to make a right turn from the left lane. Nobody was hurt, so feel free to laugh or cry. FCA North American exec files “whistleblower” suit over SEC probe Reid Bigland (Dario Ayala/THE GAZETTE) In other scandalous automotive news, Reid Bigland, FCA’s head of U.S. sales and top boss in Canada, is filing a “whistleblower” lawsuit against the automaker for allegedly cutting his pay by 90 per cent after he gave testimony in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation into FCA sales reporting practices. The lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages, claiming the company unjustly cost Bigland over US$1.8 million in bonus and stock payout. The drastic measures firefighters take to put out and keep out a Tesla fire Sure, we all love a good electric car fire — it’s the new best thing to watch on the Internet (sorry goats in pajamas). But what about for the firefighters who have to extinguish them after the content gold has been captured? Less entertaining, especially considering the cars have been known to reignite up to six days later—a stunt traditional gas-powered cars can’t pull—often requiring fire squadrons to submerge the heavy vehicles in tanks of water for days at a time. BMW demands full payment after Youtuber modifies his financed M4 BMW fan and Youtuber Rickardo “Ricky” Senior, who had a hybrid turbo, upgraded exhaust and methanol injection added to his recently financed BMW M4, bumping up the horsepower figure to over 700, recently learned the hard way why making changes to a product you don’t fully own can be unwise. Because while he views the mods as “upgrades,” BMW sees them as just the opposite, claiming he’s breached the terms of his Personal Contract Purchase and demanding he pay up in full, and soon. “If I don’t make the payment for this car by next week, they’re threatening to recover the vehicle and probably auction the car off and bill me for the remainder of what’s left of the debt,” he told his Youtube, LivingLifeFast. Let’s all learn from Ricky’s ordeal. Europe to ban Camaro SS and Chevy Corvette sales Europe has spoken. The hearty American 6.2-litre LT1 V8 engine found in the C7 Corvette and sixth-generation Camaro SS simply will not do! To satisfy new emissions goals, both the European Union and the U.K. will instate a ban on sales of any Chevy with the V8 as of August 31, 2019. Sales of the used cars will still be permitted. European availability for the upcoming C8 remains up in the air. Quebec has been going HAM with the vanity plates. These are our faves so far This Porsche makes us wonder what is DADTOY1 Montreal Vanity Plate Spotting / Facebook It’s been just nine months since the province of Quebec changed the rules to allow for the use of vanity plates, and since then over 26,000 of the $250 pieces of rectangular metal have been sold by the SAAQ. It seems Quebec drivers have a lot to say in 7 characters or less. Some of our
Origin: News Roundup: Double dose of FCA controversy, banged up Bugatti, and Teslas fires that just won’t go out
YouTuber videos himself using Tesla’s Autopilot from the back seat
2018 Tesla Model 3Peter Bleakney In a truly stupid video recently posted to Instagram, YouTuber Alex Choi attempted to make himself look cool by sitting in the back seat of a semi-autonomous Tesla Model 3 with nobody behind the wheel. Choi posted the eight-second clip to his Instagram Stories, clearly showing himself taking a video from the back seat of the car as it self-navigated heavy traffic, a friend in the front passenger seat and the driver’s seat completely empty, just like the part of his brain where the common sense is supposed to be. Needless to say, if something were to go wrong with the system, or even if it were turned off suddenly – it deactivates when someone turns the wheel or touches the brakes – he would have been totally screwed, and likely would’ve hurt somebody else on the road. meanwhile, YouTuber and new #TeslaModel3 Performance owner, Alex Choi is posted this video to his Instagram story last night. Its probably the most reckless thing that hes done and thats saying something. pic.twitter.com/TK5zwgRohX Det Ansinn (@detansinn) June 4, 2019 This isn’t the first time Choi has done something stupid that endangers other people’s lives. A video was posted a while back with him making an extremely ill-timed merge in a Lamborghini that almost ended a motorcycle rider’s life. Honestly, if you’re going to do something for the gram, at least make it cool or interesting; this is just stupid, and doesn’t help the reputation of the Autopilot system. Once again, Tesla’s Autopilot system is not some stupid toy to be played with. It’s a driver assistance aid aimed at making driving more comfortable, so quit pretending it’s your own personal chauffeur. It isn’t. Tesla is also partly to blame for this kind of behavior, since the automaker still uses language like “full self-driving capability” to describe Autopilot’s advantages, when that’s something it really doesn’t
Origin: YouTuber videos himself using Tesla’s Autopilot from the back seat
Tesla’s upcoming Model Y SUV could be built at Fremont plant
Elon Musk is notoriously cagey when it comes to details about his automotive empire. Delivery numbers? Cost estimates? Time frames? Where most other auto manufacturers get their feet held to the fire over such minutiae, Musk and company seem to thrive on a foundation of sand and fog. After introducing the Model Y small crossover earlier this year, questions centred around where exactly the thing would be built. Since it shares much with the Model 3, a logical guesstimate would be for it to share assembly space with its smaller brother. Back in Q4 2018, however, the company stated it would likely utilize the Gigafactory 1 space in Nevada for Model Y production. That seems to have changed, according to a report from CNBC. Citing those in the know, Tesla is looking at pressing its Fremont facility into Model Y production, a plan Musk may have alluded to on an April call with investors. Nothing’s been publicly confirmed. In order for that plan to work, the company would need to shuffle a series of deck chairs at Fremont, a plant which currently produces all three of Tesla vehicles on sale today. Adding the Model Y to that mix would likely require new equipment, gear for which the company has barely begun to place orders, according to sources cited by CNBC. Those same insiders say that making way for the Model Y would necessitate consolidating Model X and Model S production onto a single line. And yes, Tesla’s four vehicles are called S, 3, X and Y. That ‘3’ would have been an ‘E’ if not for the Ford Motor Company crying foul over trademarks and copyrights. Keep in mind that Tesla is planning extensive upgrades to the Model S this year, including an interior that is said to mimic that found in the Model 3. If it utilizes some of the same forms and parts, it could reduce costs, or allow for more flexible manufacturing options at Fremont. The company recently cut production staff and, according to insiders speaking to CNBC, now makes the X and S on weekday
Origin: Tesla’s upcoming Model Y SUV could be built at Fremont plant
All about car 